As a long-time fan of rail travel, I’m often telling people about America’s great train rides.

Now here’s a cool idea: How about combining your train trip with other forms of transportation?

Let’s start with traveling from rail to sea….
Vacations by Rail has a package that combines an overnight Amtrak trip from Los Angeles.

You travel along the California coastline, past the Cascade Range and into Seattle where you climb aboard a Holland America cruise to Alaska.

Amtrak Vacations has a 10-day rail-drive package of America’s West. The $1,500 price tag includes a car rental to drive from Denver to Yellowstone National Park. Then, from Salt Lake City, you hop on the California Zephyr to San Francisco.

Then there’s the DIY option: riding the rails to bike trails. Most Pacific Surfliner trains on the West Coast are equipped with bicycle racks so you can get off and cycle back to your starting point.

And there are plans to add bike access to the Capitol Limited Line between Chicago and Washington, D.C., which runs parallel to the bike-friendly Great Allegheny Passage/C&O Canal Towpath corridor.